I've said this before on the many threads about hand speed before, but the fastest pair of hands I ever saw was from a Mexican flyweight named 'Halimi' Gutierrez. The first time I saw him fight was on the old 'Boxing from the Forum' telecasts and he was fighting the reigning flyweight champ Erbito Salavarria in a non-title. It was strange because Halimi was ranked #5 at the time, so one might think, why isn't it a title fight? I don't know why it wasn't but Salavarria should have been thankful that it wasn't. Man, I never saw handspeed like this. It was damn close to a blur. By '72, as with all flaming comets, he started to fizzle out, losing to fighters he should have taken. But his peak from '69 to '71 was off the charts.
I know Amir Khan always get laughed at for his chin, but the man had some fast ass hands, especially in the first 6 rounds.
The fastest in my time watching would be guys like Ali, Patterson, Jones, Hearns, SRL, Taylor, Camacho and Howard Davis Jr. During my sweetspot Howard Davis was considered the fastest, then Camacho was favored over him then Taylor was favored over both. I liked the way Camacho utilised his speed more than the other two. Before Rosario scared him he stayed on top of guys and blitzed them with blinding speed of hand and foot. Hearns speed gets underrated because his punches travel a long way and he didn't throw may flashy combos. Those punches were absolutely flying tho. Cuevas and Duran are brilliant examples of this. Jones in his own way might be the fastest of the lot, particularly P4P. Unlike a good portion of the list his punches are also laced with venom.
I remember a guy called Ed Hopson had some blistering hand speed. He was a southpaw without much power but by gee he was fast!!
Joe Louis anyone? How about Pernell Whitaker? two that haven't been mentioned yet. Because theirs speed (Love him ,but he couldn't crack an egg with his power) Howard Davis Jr., Also Mel Taylor, L. Smith. E.Hopson. And there's effective speed, Joe Louis, Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Jones Jr, Camacho before Rasario, Ali, M.Nunn, T.Norris , etc.
I have often mused that the fastest hands in boxing history quite probably belong to some flyweight or strawweight I’ve never heard of. Perhaps now I’ve heard of him. Good post.
Probably some flyweight from 90 years ago that nobody remembers. Maybe because of a color line thing in the US. Maybe because he was somewhere in latin america and only fought in regional bouts. That kind of thing.